The dialectic between free will and determinism in its original form is no longer as relevant for us in the century although it can never be fully dismissed or dealt with completely. As the power of computers and sophistication of graphic displays have both increased enormously, artificial realities have become more lifelike in the features that they contain. Hence, not only do they allow people to experiment with ordinary reality, but they have even begun to surpass ordinary reality itself by creating new (artificial) realities. Thus, our contention is that artificial reality sits midway between reality and unreality for it can be used both to explore and to develop either one. If society our society appears increasingly headed in the direction of unreality, then artificial reality is the midwife to bring it to life.   #RyanPhillippe 1 of 10

What happens if CBS has one of these machines that can generate real-time animation of photographic quality? You can look at two TVs—one has got a picture of Ryan Phillippe talking to Randolph Harris, and the other set has a picture of Randolph Harris standing behind Ryan Phillippe and you cannot tell them apart. One is on videotape and one was synthesized on a computer. We already do not believe in film anymore. What is going to happen to electronic news gathering when the validating function of videotape no longer exists [emphasis ours]? Television will no longer be a verification medium. Who is going to control that? The rules by which TV operates cannot be seen directly. The rules behind all of the seductive images, the glitter—in short, the gloss that tempts us into throwing aside older versions of reality in the relentless pursuit of new or better improved ones—cannot be see.   #RyanPhillippe 2 of 10

How do we put governors [i.e., in our language, “guarantors”] on these fantasy systems so that people do not fantasize the wrong things? The fundamental dialectic for our time is between reality and unreality, especially now that we have the power to influence and create both. As a creature in God’s likeness, did man possess a soul and a will that were autonomous, or, as a member of the physical Universe was man’s behavior completely describable in physical terms? Was man really free to plan his actions or was freedom an illusion? The paradox is that for a medium that is primarily visual, TV can show everything except the rules by which it operates. Thus, weird physical objects that do not obey the usual laws of physics can be created as well as the weirdest imaginable creatures.   #RyanPhillippe 3 of 10

Real people can be stored within a computer. Programs can make the imagines interact with real, live, or other previous simulations of the initial person or things. The fundamental rationale for all of this is not to allow engineering nerds to play with highly sophisticated electronic toys. The real reason is that the networks, the electronic and computer manufactures, he advertisement agencies, and even the big toy companies, all have poured considerable monies into the development of Image Engineering. This is because it allows all of the interested parties to achieve and to maintain a degrees of control over electronic images that they cannot achieve and maintain over live human subjects. Have we not in fact become like the gods? Some reporters, politicians, and community members has gotten so used to lying, spreading rumors, calling people by the wrong names and using smuggler language that they cannot even distinguish what is reality or unreality because they lie so much.  #RyanPhillippe 4 of 10

Do we not possess great powers along very limited technological dimensions and hence like the gods lack the accompanying moral and political dimensions to put our new powers in proper perspective? One of my patients informed me once, that his earliest memory started when he was five years old. His mother took him upstairs to meet the neighbors, but he remembers experiencing this in a panoramic sense, as if he was there watching himself meet the neighbors. He distinctly remembered the house and the stairway leading up to the second floor. He entertained this memory for many years, but when he imparted it to his mother, a few years ago, she laughed, declaring that there was no truth in it, that is the first place he was not born in this particular house, but has merely lived there from age four to six, that she could not recall this particular neighbor on the second floor.  #RyanPhillippe 5 of 10

Notwithstanding his mother’s absolute denial, the patient continued to entertain this memory; he strongly felt that it was true despite all facts to the contrary. By now, most people are vaguely aware of the revolution that is occurring in genetic engineering even if they do not fully comprehend it. They know it has to do with something bigger, smarter, and richer. What they do not appreciate is that the medical revolution hits much closer to home. Some people are under the impression that a particular being was created, and that this creation was discovered by a corrupt politician, who will stop at nothing so he can destroy it and study it, and that the being is unaware that he is not natural. There is also a myth that his father, a famous actor wants his son back, but is too shy to speak to him. The young man has suffered several injuries that would have killed a normal person.   #RyanPhillippe 6 of 10

Researchers at the University of Texas invented a new kind of synthetic bone material. The revolutionary new material is not only lighter and stronger than the old kinds that were used to make repairs, but in addition possess a property that older materials never did. The new synthetic material is not only more compatible with living tissue, but indeed so much so that it is the only known material this far into which blood vessels can grow. In effect, blood vessels are capable of converting what was previously inert martials into new living material. The type of synthetic bone the Scientist developed is virtually identical to natural bone, and much stronger than previous bone substitutes and better able to withstand stress. Once the new material is implanted, it is slowly broken down by bodily process and replaced by living bone. The own natural bone covers and grows into the pores over a two-to-four-week period and blood vessels grow into the bone.   #RyanPhillippe 7 of 10

The stimulation of the new bone growth suggests that grafts should last indefinitely. Over longer periods of time, the synthetic bone is broken down by specialized cells and replaced with natural bone—just as the body’s own bone is continually replaced. One wonders whether human beings are on the verge of becoming like modern cars. In effect, the only thing that is still American about any cars if their nameplate. The actual car itself may be composed of more foreign than American parts. Is the same thing happening now to humans? What after all is the dividing line between inert and living material? What is dead? What is alive? What is real? These are no longer academic questions. They are certainly no longer questions for which there are available obvious or easy answers. All I know is the continuous attack and harassment of a living being should not be tolerated nor should a politician and the community actively try to label a sane person “crazy” so they can contain and study him, dead or alive.   #RyanPhillippe 8 of 10

There should be a way to provide physical and psychological relief from the stresses generated by a bureaucratic, technological society that often demeans and dehumanizes its members who are locked it its grips. The phenomenon of Boundary Warping becomes especially disturbing when the degree of identification with a character becomes so intense that it substitutes in part or in total for the personalities of the viewers. Societies everywhere have always produced people whose personalities and identities were either weakly or incompletely formed. Heroes, celebrities, royalty, historical figures have always served as living substitutes for the deficient parts of the personalities of people whose own personalities were weak or insufficiently formed. What is alarming is that modern societies provide an ever abundant, ever increasing supply of fictive personalities with whom weak or incomplete people can identify or compensate for their own deficient personalities.   #RyanPhillippe 9 of 10

The worst, most extreme, for of identification occurs when, for instance, a Kevin Johnson identifies so closely with a Randolph Harris that he projects unwanted or undesirable aspects of himself on to Harris. When the unwanted projections are so powerful and so bad that the person cannot accept them as characteristics of himself/herself, then often the only way to get rid of the projections is to kills the person, in his case Randolph Harris, who has been chosen as the unconscious embodiment of them. To put it mildly, this is Boundary Warping of the most extreme and most dangerous form. One is not able to keep straight—literally—the boundaries between himself/herself and some other well-known person. This type of Boundary Warping was also seen in Jennifer’s Body, when a cult of celebrities become obsessed with Jennifer, and need her in order to live. America has always had deep yearnings and striving for therapeutic redemption.    #RyanPhillippe 10 of 10